News

A new peer reviewed article was just accepted in BirdLife Conservation International, Burgess et al 2016 "The importance of protected and unprotected areas for colony occupancy and colony size in White-necked Picathartes Picathartes gymnocephalus in and around Gola Rainforest National Park, Sierra Leone".

Gola is of global importance to White-necked Picathartes. Monitoring of colonies over 8 years show mean colony occupation was consistently high in protected areas, and lower in unprotected areas. Active colony size declined overall, but declines were only significant in unprotected forest; colonies located within protected areas were buffered from significant decline.

Non-protected areas can remain important for species of conservation concern, even though occupancy and colony activity was reduced compared to protected areas. And efforts to

minimise colony disturbance and ensure continued occupancy, such as reducing forest clearance around existing colonies, the 4-km wide ’leakage belt’ under the Gola REDD project, and the new village mentoring and educational will all help.